1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing systems. More particularly, it relates to an object-oriented information processing system and consists in an information-object designation system which designates a stored information object for the purpose, e. g., of activating the information object.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an object-oriented information processing system, a small functional unit or module, for example, is arranged as an object in any desired processor, and a message is sent to the processor, thereby to activate the object and to execute a corresponding process.
FIG. 1A is a block diagram for explaining a prior-art example of an information-object designation system by which the object to be activated, for instance, is designated in such an object-oriented information processing system. Referring to the figure, a launcher 2 is the information-object designation system. Besides, an operating system 1 is that of the object-oriented information processing system, and only its constituents relevant to the designation of objects are shown here.
The operating system 1 includes an information-object storage module 3 which stores therein the names and identification numbers (IDs) of the information objects, the operations of the objects, the contents of the objects indicating a program, a text etc., and icons symbolic of the objects. Also included is a display-information generation module 4 by which a character string expressive of the name of at least one information object or such graphics information as the icon is generated as display information in order to display the information object. In addition, a display module 5 displays the display information generated by the display-information generation module 4.
The launcher 2 includes an information-object-identifier storage module 6 which stores therein the names, identification numbers, etc. of the information objects stored in the information-object storage module 3. Also included is a character-string input module 7 with which the user of the designation system enters any character string for designating the corresponding information object to-be-activated. In addition, a character-string collation module 8 collates the character string inputted from the character-string input module 7, with the character strings expressive of the names of the information objects as stored in the information-object-identifier storage module 6. Besides, an event commencement module 9 is disposed in order that, when the character-string collation module 8 has detected the match of the character strings, an event for the object having the specific character string as its name may be transferred to the information-object storage module 3.
FIG. 1B exemplifies the stored contents of the information-object storage module 3 which is included in the operating system 1 shown in FIG. 1A. The IDs of the information objects, the character strings serving as the names, the operations, the contents, and the icons are stored in correspondence with the respective objects.
FIG. 1C illustrates a display example of the icon which is symbolic of the corresponding object. The example is the icon of the object whose ID is xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d as shown in FIG. 1B, that is, the information object whose name is expressed by the character string of xe2x80x9cEDITxe2x80x9d.
FIG. 1D exemplifies the stored contents of the information-object-identifier storage module 6 which is included in the launcher 2 shown in FIG. 1A. As seen from FIG. 1D, the IDs of the objects, the character strings serving as the names, and the pronunciations of the character strings are stored in correspondence with the respective objects in the information-object-identifier storage module 6.
In the prior-art example of the launcher 2 explained with reference to FIG. 1A, the stored contents of the information-object-identifier storage module 6 are created by manually shifting those of the information-object storage module 3 which is included in the operating system 1. Therefore, the prior-art designation system has the problem that a long time is expended on the shifting operation. Another problem is that the character strings serving as the names of the objects need to be correctly pronounced and entered as indicated in FIG. 1D, so the shifting operation is troublesome.
Moreover, the user must keep in remembrance which of the objects stored in the information-object storage module 3 within the operating system 1 have been shifted to the side of the launcher 2. It is also necessary to indicate the shifted objects somewhere, for example, on a display device. These drawbacks are eliminated in such a way that the names and IDs of all the objects are shifted into the information-object-identifier storage module 6. This countermeasure, however, poses the problems that the storage module 6 requires a very large storage capacity, and that a long time is expended on the collating operation of the character-string collation module 8.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information-object designation system for automatically creating on a launcher side a correspondence table in which the character strings of the names of information objects stored in a memory on an operating system side and the identification numbers of the information objects are held in correspondence, thereby to dispense with a manual operation for shifting the stored contents of the memory to the launcher side.
An information-object designation system according to the present invention comprises a character-string comparison unit and an event commencement unit.
In the present invention, the character-string comparison unit compares two character strings; a character string expressive of the name of an information object stored in an information processing system, and a character string based on externally inputted information. When the character-string comparison unit has detected the match of the two character strings, the event commencement unit commences an event for the information object which bears a name expressed by the specific character string having matched.